GassyLittleElf’s Comments

I predict this argument will continue to go around in circles but if you want to know why so many normally loyal readers are at odds with you, it is this: We do not feel that Microsoft is "improving its algorithm" by this. We feel that Microsoft is directly copying Google results without doing anything that REQUIRES an algorithm. It looks to me like Bing does its own work via its own algorithm to find results, then hedges its bets by pasting in whatever Google says should be #1. If Bing learned something that allowed their own algorithm to find things, that would be one thing but that isn't what happened here. Bing never found those results, it just knew that Google had and slapped them into its own results. I know this doesn't convince you so I think that you and us dissenters will just have to agree to disagree.

I'm baffled that this post is from the same person who wrote about and defended the use of social mores in cases like the Joe Rogan / Carlos Mencia kerfuffle. You yourself said that publicly calling out Carlos Mencia for copying other comedians jokes was a rational way to pressure him to stop copying by negatively affecting his professional reputation, therefore encouraging him to stop. Google didn't sue, they simply called out Microsoft in a public way that negatively affects their professional reputation, therefore encouraging them to stop. Could you explain why you see these seemingly identical situations differently?